When I first started writing romance, my perception was that writing the male POV would be difficult, maybe impossible. Well, let me tell you...writing male POV has become my favorite part of the entire writing process. In fact, the hero of my work in progress jumped in and took over. The story was supposed to be her story--and, of course, it still is. But my hero showed up with all his little quirks and baggage and overpowered everybody else. He ended up being so much deeper and complex than I had originally planned, or even wanted him to be. Beyond his penchant for taking center stage, I loved, loved, loved seeing the world through his eyes. I have been told that male POV is perhaps my storytelling strength. I've even been asked if I'm really a man (I'm definitely not). Obviously, any success I've found in that department springs from the fact that I love to write the male POV. I tried something a little different recently. I wrote an entire story in first person from the POV of each protagonist. Obviously, that is uber-verboten in the world of romance, but for this story it works to perfection. When it came the hero's turn to tell us what was going on, we heard his story in his own personal voice. He used shorter words, terser sentences. The introspection was blunter. He cursed a bit. He didn't have quite the vocabulary skills the heroine possessed, and at times he fumbled around for the proper word. In the end, he always got his point across, but doing so wasn't accomplished as seamlessly as the heroine managed to do. As far as sexual tension and intimacy, all I could do was have him react in whatever way I would want him to react in that particular circumstance--and he did indeed rise to the occasion. (pun definitely intended). In READY OR NOT (available now at Smashwords, Kindle and other e-book sites),there were no first-person issues to deal with, but I approached the male POV the same way--change in voice, words used, and particularly how to relay his feelings to the reader. I look forward to the male POV in all my stories, but I do have to know my hero extremely well. I end up knowing so many things about each of them that the reader will never know, The essence of those "unknown" aspects of his life are important elements of who he is, which is what I must portray to the reader. Sometimes that portrayal becomes a challenge but I enjoy that test of my skills as writer. Would you like to know a few things about Sheriff Sam Pepper from READY OR NOT? He doesn't wear a sheriff's uniform. He wears jeans and button-down shirts to work. He has never had a really serious relationship with a woman. That's not to say, he hasn't had relationships-- just nothing that stuck. He loves children and helped his older sister with her children when they were small. He played football and baseball when he was in high school (not quite tall enough for basketball). Football was his favorite until his friend Ginger married a baseball player, then he became an expert on all aspects of the game, how it is played, even obscure baseball stats. He enjoys watching both sports and does so as often as he can. He went to college at the University of Tennessee and even made it through two years of law school before he decided that law wasn't for him. He quit school, to his parents' dismay, and returned home to Laurel County to work with his father in the family feed and seed business, until his father retired his parents moved away. At that point, Sam ran for Sheriff--and won. These are just a few of the many personal things about Sheriff Pepper that never made it into READY OR NOT. But they are things that are intricate parts of who he is and how he reacts. This is not to say that I don't have the same challenge with the female POV. I do, however, have experience being a female, although certainly not all the experiences I dump on my heroines. But I can indeed think like a woman, and that's half the battle in writing her POV. I guess I can't really think or react like a man, but I've certainly enjoyed my adventures in trying to, and as every woman has certainly found herself doing at least once or twice--when the chips are down, I just fake it.